Ooooh, they're catching you up, BBC 1!!!!! (BBC 1)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	BBC 1
Date:	27/10/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Still some great progs, no ads

Disadvantages: Not so much better than other channels

TV is advancing. It seems that every time I have a browse through the umpteen channels available to me, there is another one that has popped up. This gives you more variety. Sure, most of these channels are onea I wouldn't even look at twice, but if I wanted to, they're there.

So, where does this leave the thing that started it all: BBC 1? Well, this is one of the main reasons we pay our TV licence fee. Forget about all the salaries at the Beeb, as it is known: it's the funding of the shows on BBC 1 and other channels that our licence fee goes towards. So, this in effect makes it a channel that it costs to watch, right?

Well, in a way. So, what does BBC 1 have to offer? Well, we have the prime time slots where you get the hard hitting dramas, documentaries, topical programmes. Then there are the soaps such as Eastenders; there is the 9 o'clock news; the trashy daytime TV shows that are, for some reason, mesmerising; and kids TV in the afternoon.

Is there anything special about any of this any more? I find that every channel has something different to offer. Saturdays are a joy on TV for me. Once I have woken from my slumber, I love to watch Football Focus around midday, and then there's Grandstand, which usually has a good variety of sport, including some major event. Then the evening comes, and I'm quite happy to watch Merlin followed by Strictly Come Dancing.

Sundays aren't quite so good, although the recapture from ITV of the Formula 1 Grand Prix season has been a big bonus, particularly as we can now watch the races without having to endure aad breaks right at the crucial moments. And it's perhaps the lack of advertising that is quite appealing to me. The fact that you can get an entire programme without fear of your concentration wavering because you have to put up with 5 minutes of washing powder and gravy ads, right in the middle of a sporting event or a good film.

The BBC has this very much in its favour, but we do have to pay for it with our licence fee. Sure, this fee also enables us to watch TV full stop. No channels would be available without it, and it's important to realise that every channel is in the same boat, and it's not fair to sound out BBC 1 or even 2 for that matter.

However, the thing is that there are so many other channels that are easily accessible without having to pay too much more that have just as good entertainment, news and the like on them. ITV naturally is the closest rival, but the Sky specific channels as well as things such as Watch and Alibi are also streaking up behind, with Dave quite a popular channel too. The sport is mainly restricted to the Sky and Setanta channels, and even Channel 5 has the only 'terrestrial' coverage of US sports.

So, BBC 1, for me, still has a lot of appeal. Topical 'The One Show' is enjoyable and entertaining, and Friday night with Jonathan Ross I like too. Graham Norton is airing his current chat show, and that's good too, and there are other programmes that are far more appealing than other channels, at times. But it is fast becoming just as entertaining to watch any old channel, and now, instead of browsing by channel, I look for a programme I want to watch, and don't really take heed of the channel.

BBC 1, you have shone for years, and you still shine......a lot of the time. But the pretenders to the throne aren't pretenders any more. You are good, but so are all the others. I still recommend it for many shows, and for the lack of advertising, but it takes equal stakes in my TV watching time now.

Summary: The BBC's frontline TV channel